Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays

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Arrived in Airlie beach and we managed to get a double room for cheaper than two dorm beds which was excellent. The place was nice and located above a strange food/shopping arcade thing but had lovely views and was close to the bus station. Our room was very tiny, didn't have a window and the walls were paper thin (unfortunate as the people next door were French) but it was cheap so no probs. We managed to score an excellent deal on our Whitsundays trip. All the practice of haggling in Asia was coming in handy now as a discount really does mean something when you are dealing with "Western" currencies. We ended up booking a really cool trip on a new boat that had only been out four times. The guide book says that however much money you spend there is still a high risk of catching bed bugs from the boats - we hoped the fact the boat was new would reduce this risk as I managed to avoid them in Asia, I didn't want to deal with them now!

Anyway, while we waited for our trip out there we hung out at the beautiful lagoon which is really nice and deep. The locals call it the backpacker bath as so many of us lot hang out there - they should call it the tanning booth as I have never seen so many pastie white people sitting out in there bikinis baking themselves! Dan has finally got a camera now and it is a cool waterproof one so we had fun playing with that in the lagoon. I also had a Sunbway sandwhich that I liked for the first time - BBQ meatballs is gooooood. Dan is pleased that I have finally been converted to Subway.

Our boat trip started the nxt day at around 4pm so we enjoyed a nice morning hanging out in Airlie (playing cards of course). Had a nice little trip down to the marina and were met by the skipper of the boat Luke. Typical nutty Australian bloke. The boat was beautiful and room was very cozy considering it was a three person bed room. Me and Dan had a double and we shared with a Norwegian girl who had the single bed above ours. We sailed out for the rest of the day and moored up somewhere that we could then get to whitehaven beach easily the next day. Met the rest of the people on our trip - an italian couple on their honeymoon, a british couple who we had already met when booking the trip and a French Canadian couple. The food was brilliant (cooked by Isabelle, Lukes german girlfriend) which was amazing for such a small boat. We sailed out as much as we could but had to use the motor sometimes for mooring up.

The next day we started sailing just before the sun rose which was really cool and this meant we timed our arrival at whitehaven beach perfectly. The sun had just come out and the place was deserted so we were the first to step on the pristine white sand. It was truly one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. We spent the rest of that morning exploring a bit of the island and trying some new sports. I was the only one wearing a stinger suit but I didn't care - really didn't fancy getting stung by a deadly jellyfish this time! Me and Dan tried unsuccessfully to windsurf - it didn't go so well but we both managed to stand up on it. I managed to go along on it for a bit until I tried to turn it round and i splooshed into the water. Then we tried paddle boarding and I quite enjoyed and after a bit of practice, was able to stand up and paddle along quite happily.

After a while the clouds came over and masses started to arrive so we headed back to the boat and made our way to another bay so we could get up onto the lookout point. Again this was timed very well as we got there just as the tide was perfect to take photos (just like the famous pictures) and the sun came out for a bit again. We managed to see giant rays in the bay below and we saw a massive stick insect and lizard in the forest on the walk back. We also bumped into a couple from the midlands we met in Cairns which was weird. Saw a turtle pop its head up again from the side of the boat - still would love to see one while I'm actually in the water. We then travelled onto another bay to try and do a bit of snorkelling but the visibility by this point was really bad and I saw a jellyfish so got pulled out fairly early on!

Had a very enjoyable evening again with some wonderful food and wine this time. Played some cards and went to bed. I woke up during the night and went up on deck to watch the stars. You could see so many and they were so bright as there was no other light around. Also saw some crazy glowing things in the water....

Next day we headed off to another snorkelling spot just from the famous exclusive resort in the whitsundays. So we went off to explore, again Luke had timed our trip perfectly so that the tide was high and going out so the deeper coral could be spotted more easily as the morning went on. We were lucky enough to see the big blue moari wrasse nicknamed "Elvis". We also saw another massive silver fish (we think it was a trevalli). We saw a barracuda, lots of "Dori" fish and loads of cool massive parrot fish. It's so weird because you can actually hear them crunching away on the coral.

After that it was time to sail home and it was fairly rough and so sat at the front it was difficult to move and we all got really wet from the boat splashing. The sails were out and the so was the sun and it was an amazaing journey home, made extra special by the pod of dolphins that came to ride along with the boat for a while. Even the skipper Luke was amazed to see them along side us as it is fairly unusual. Really put the cherry on top of our trip. Also glad we didn't have bed bugs - always a bonus!

Got back and was put in the tiny room next to the one we stayed in before. This time we had a balcony but the room was even smaller and still had paper thin walls. Hung out the next day at the lagoon again and the next day we spent wasting time (tried to do a bit of last minute sunbathing) until the bus came just after sunset.

This section of the trip was amazing and a real highlight of our Australian adventure so far!

Sorry no photos for this one as Dan's memory card which has most of the photos on is playing up.

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Comments

[Denise Craig]

Wow! Sounds really wonderful. Looking forward to seeing the pics. Moot x